Johnny Sorrow

I remember in the Mid Eighties, PWI and the Apter mags were totally pushing Taylor hard as a possible new NWA Champion. They even did one of their phony articles where Magnum and Taylor had a friendly wager as to who'd win the belt first.

Memphis is head and shoulders above all the sets I got. I didn't get any of the Japan ones, but I'd rank what I did get as 1. Memphis. This was the most fun of all the sets and that's my number one concern when watching wrestling. 2. Mid South. I have such great memories of watching Mid South/ UWF when I was 16-17 that this set was both a walk down memory lane and a chance to see shit I had only read about. 3. Texas. Thanks to the "Classics of World Class" I had seen most of the stuff that occurred before we got WC, so most of this was a true walk down that memory lane. I loved it but the repetitiveness of the wrestlers on my screen DID get a little tiresome, no matter how awseome the matches were. The Embry era stuff was a hoot cause I had never seen it. 4. AWA. Still getting through it. I love a lot of what I've seen so far and haven't gotten to the point where we got AWA TV. Blackwell is the coolest, and Greg Gagne still stinks. The reason I didn't get any of the Japan sets is a mixture of finances and the fact that I like to know what's going on when I watch wrestling. I want to know WHY these people are fighting, and I don't understand Japanese. It's not a deal breaker or anything, I got that amazing Misawa/ Kawada set some years back and I love it. But when I have to decide on how I spend my cash, the "intangibles, let's say, come into it. I'll probably get them someday, to have a complete collection.

Haha, my boss at the club's name is Mohammad Hussein. He goes by "Marty", though.

Then you were finding things that weren't there, dude. It's clearly just JBL not knowing who Tanaka is and the fact that he probably actually had a doorman who looked like Tanaka. He didn't say anything else disparaging about him, just "MY DOORMAN IS TOUGH! LOOK AT THAT!" while completely shitting on Mike Awesome the whole match. Oh, totally. I love JBL but that was a drunk and douchey thing to do. Apparently, Foley complained about it to Vince.

Gino was fucking awesome in the ring. He was just as much a dickhead as a wrestler as he was a promo. He'd actually go as far as to bite Kevin's foot to get out of a hold. And Muraco was the man. He was a lazy, beach bum, bully slob who wrestled like a lazy, beach bum, bully slob. I've pretty much disliked Piper since he came back after the Mania 3 match. It's crazy, cause I loved him for years. But from that time on he went from crazy and cool guy who really isn't that great in the ring but I don't care, to nails on a chalkboard guy who I don't want to watch wrestle, listen to on commentary, etc..

Yeah, except for the racism where he keeps insisting that Tanaka is his doorman. But yeah, him making fun of 2.99999999999999!!!! is pretty fun. There was nothing racist there. He was saying that Tanaka looked liked the guy who was his doorman. It's not as if there's some stereotype of Asian Doormen in New York City.

I was gonna say the same thing. His whole Foley feud was fucking great with some fun matches, and that match against Big Show in WWECW was the tits.

Well, who's to say that any of these talented guys would be good at training developmental guys in the WWE style?

If you get a chance, watch the first WWE/ ECW One Night Stand show with the special "JBL commentary" on. It's a drunk JBL ragging on the matches and his stuff during Tanaka/ Awesome is hilarious.

I'd imagine that Billy Gunn is perfectly qualified as a developmental trainer. The best trainers tend to be guys who were never top guys. Just teaching guys the basics and the style WWE wants sounds like something he's capable of doing. I saw him a few years ago on a TNA house show and he was clearly the guy with the best skills at connecting with the crowd and he was on like the second match. And he's probably better qualified than fucking Hugh Morrus, who I've heard is really disliked for his attitude towards trainees and his tendency to get too rough on them.

I seriously doubt a "significant portion" of the WWE audience are the types of people who agree with the idea that Americans are all fat, lazy, and entitled. "There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. There are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent on government, who believe that that they are victims, who believe that government has the responsibility to care for them. Who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing...I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives." Ok, umm. 1.Are you trying to say that the rich and powerful of this country are WWE Fans and look down on the rest of the country? 2.Or are you implying that the audience will think Cesaro is talking about "the 47%" that they as a bunch of hillbillies and republicans consider the poor and non white are, so they'll agree? 3. Can I have what you're smoking? 4. Have you been to a WWE show? They're not exactly filled with either a bunch of Bill Mahers who agree that Americans are fat and entitled, nor are they filled with people who would think Cesaro is talking about the 53%, but not them.

I'm kinda loving Del Rio's face turn just happening out of nowhere and now he's a good guy who slapped hands with a fan on the way to the ring on RAW.

Oh I give the guy all the credit in the world for getting himself over. I just personally think he kinda stinks.

I seriously doubt a "significant portion" of the WWE audience are the types of people who agree with the idea that Americans are all fat, lazy, and entitled.

Fine, I just watched it again and it was "Ryder". I honestly didn't pick it up watching live. I guess my overwhelming feeling of "Bleh." about Ryder overtook my hearing. Anyhoo, I thought the show was just top to bottom great. Even the Divas match had a good story behind it. Eve makes sure the "dancer" wins the Battle Royal so she has an easy defense, said dancer shows skill in the ring and frustrates the heel. In the end the experienced heel wins, but after being made to look like a fool for taking the dancing girl lightly. The match wasn't much, but the story was good stuff.

Ok, fine. I still have a problem picturing Ryder in his LI stereotype goofy LI Meathead shit getting cheers in Brooklyn. But who cares? What a fucking great show.

Brooklyn is on Long Island. I'm aware. I'm also aware of the fact that that people from Brooklyn tend to dislike people from the LI.

Truth tweeted this pic of his knee injury after thee Cesaro match

I was pretty sure the crowd was chanting "we want Ricardo", not Ryder during the set up bit for the six man. Why would a Brooklyn crowd be behind a Long Island guy as a hometown hero? That's nuts. In no way do Brooklyn folks think a LI guy is "hometown." I'll go back and listen again, but the idea that a Brookyn crowd would be all about a Long Island guy is crazy talk. I actually thought JTG was gonna be the partner for a second. "Brooklyn, Brooklyn.."

The match was actually from the Meadowlands across the river.

Well what he's really doing is just calling everyone fat, lazy, and entitled. Just adding on "You Americans are...". It's working for him.

It's the whole "people who think Americans are assholes but Americans don't care" deal. Like the USA/ Canada stuff they've done over the years. It was always the Canadian fans all behind their guys and Americans going "We don't hate Canada. We don't even think about Canada." And Cesaro does the whole "douchey European" thing so well without being French. So he can be a tough guy and not Rene' Dupree.

I'll tell ya what they have being doing right lately and that's Antonio Cesaro. He's been awesome in his matches. He's committed to the character. His promos have been great. And now they seem solidly behind the guy. They've made the US Belt important again after god knows how long. They've quickly gone from "Aksana's boyfriend who played Rugby" to "Old school throwback tough guy with uncanny strength and skill" mixed with a great "Anti- America/ Obnoxious European" that isn't a bad stereotype. He's on the road to the main event someday the right way. Granted, we'll see if they jump the gun and put him in the main event too soon as a test as they've been prone to do in recent years, ala Swagger, but right now he's doing great at the perfect level for him right now. I'm also totally digging the repackaged Wade Barrett. He's been great in the ring and his mic work is just the best.

Because he was the most famous ring announcer of all time already at this point, and this point being around the height of his fame amongst people who didn't even watch boxing. WCW probably didn't give a shit about his mistakes just so long as they had him to seem more mainstream and big time. Don't get me wrong, I always hated him as a wrestling ring announcer but the fact remains that his fame superseded his fuck-ups in the eyes of management.

Not so much a con, but I love it. Jerry Lee Ralph was a Memphis mainstay, and I guess he used to tell people he was King Kong Bundy. Live and die with the gimmick, man. RIP